istance, but was paid by Great Britain for all
the forces it had sent into the field, at a very exorbitant price;
that nothing could be more absurd and iniquitous than to hire these
mercenaries, while a numerous army lay inactive at home, and the nation
groaned under such intolerable burdens. "It may be proper," added he,
"to repeat what may be forgotten in the multitude of other objects, that
this nation, after having exalted the elector of Hanover from a state
of obscurity to the crown, is condemned to hire the troops of that
electorate to fight their own cause; to hire them at a rate which was
never demanded before; and to pay levy-money for them, though it is
known to all Europe that they were not raised for this occasion." All
the partisans of the old ministry joined in the opposition to earl
Stanhope's motion, which was rejected by the majority. Then the earl of
Scarborough moved for an address, to approve of the measures which had
been taken on the continent; and this was likewise carried by dint of
numbers. It was not, however, a very eligible victory; what they gained
in parliament they lost with the people. The new ministers became more
odious than their predecessors; and people began to think that public
virtue was an empty name.

But the most severe opposition they underwent was in their endeavours
to support a bill which they had concerted, and which had passed through
the house of commons with great precipitation; it repealed certain
duties on spirituous liquors, and licenses for retailing these liquors;
and imposed others at an easier rate. When those severe duties,
amounting almost to a prohibition, were imposed, the populace of London
were sunk into the most brutal degeneracy, by drinking to excess the
pernicious spirit called gin, which was sold so cheap that the lowest
class of the people could afford to indulge themselves in one continued
state of intoxication, to the destruction of all morals, industry,
and order. Such a shameful degree of profligacy prevailed, that the
retailers of this poisonous compound set up painted boards in public,
inviting people to be drunk at the small expense of one penny; assuring
them they might be dead drunk for two-pence, and have straw for nothing.
They accordingly provided cellars and places strewed with straw,
to which they conveyed those wretches who were overwhelmed with
intoxication. In these dismal caverns they lay until they recovered
some use of their faculti